Sunday, January 18, 2009

Obama and his real group

While festivities for President-elect Obama and his inauguration saunter along, there's only one thing that seems out of place here to me. No, it's not Nancy Peliosi talking about cutting Medicare, Social Security and Medicaid during the cover of the hoopla. Democrats can freely cut a program they originated and then say they are "protecting" it. The media zombies and whipped-dog Republicans will readily assent. It's not Roland Burris, Senator from Blagoland, being sworn in while possibly being involved in a Federal crime. Crooks seem to abound in Chicago politics, so it's pretty obvious this country is moving toward affirmative action for the lawfully challenged with the right connections.

While the seeming shock of someone from black America being elected president, may titilate, this label has been misapplied. Perhaps, this is understandable, perhaps not. Still, the fact remains, Obama is not part of this group. Barrack Obama has the distinction of being a member of a different group that has, if not a massive record of success, some group wide success. What do I mean? Let me show you.

First, Obama is a real African-American. His father was Kenyan. He could be a dual citizen of Kenya and the U.S. if he so chose. In contrast, Jesse Jackson, Jesse Jackson Jr., Roland Burris etc . . . are Americans of African descent. In fact, many blacks living in the U.S. have several generations of ancestors born in America. In 1776, half of the slave population was born in these new United States. Why does this matter? Obama and his group have a rather different track record.

In his book, Black Rednecks and White Liberals, Thomas Sowell shows some of the achievements of Obama's group. In talking about Caribbean (British West Indian) and African blacks, Sowell raises the curtain on an overlooked group.

"The first black borough presidents of Manhattan were West Indian. As late as 1970, the highest ranking blacks in New York's police department were West Indians, as were all the black federal judges in the city. The 1970 census showed that black West Indian families in the New York metropolitan area had 28 percent higher income than families of American blacks. The incomes of second-generation West Indian families living in the same area exceeded that of black families by 58 percent. Neither race nor racism can explain such differences. Nor can slavery, since native-born blacks and West Indian blacks both had a history of slavery. Studies published in 2004 indicated that an absolute majority of black alumni of Harvard were either West Indian or African immigrants, or the children of these immigrants."

After graduating from the top Hawaiian prep school, Obama graduated from Columbia, then Harvard Law School. Barrack Obama has been successful at reaching goals for years. His individual achievement is impressive and this also bears out the pattern for his group. Think about it. Barely six years after the Voting Rights Act and some members of this group were federal judges. Motivation, persistence and achievement don't appear to be lacking in this group, at least in the past.

I do not wish Obama success as President. I know he will succeed. That much is certain from his own past and that of his group. What he will succeed in doing is something only time will reveal.